Royal Blue
by Poodernite
Summary: One part. "She is in absolute awe over how many people volunteer to go toe-to-toe with death in jumping off of this ungodly high platform." Rory and Jess are twelve years old, and must tackle... the high dive.


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Disclaimer: Let's face it, I don't own anything.**

**A/N: Alternate Universe fiction. Jess lives in Stars Hollow with his mom. Rory and Jess haven't paid much attention to each other. They are both twelve years old, going into the sixth grade. Hope you enjoy the story!**

**Be sure to check out the rest of my mini Rory and Jess fics, all named with colors as titles. Enjoy!**

**Royal Blue**

"Ror, come on, just pick one. Every bathing suit you've tried on has looked fine. I have things to do today and I'm tired of standing. We need to buy one today because your swim lessons start tomorrow." Lorelai explains all this through the dressing room door to her daughter.

Twelve-year-old Rory peeks her head out of her dressing room looking annoyed. "I cannot believe you're making me buy one of these two-pieces. I feel naked."

"I'm not _making_ you do anything. Those are the ones I picked out for you to try on. You can choose anything you want, just do it today."

"I hate summer," Rory grumbles as she shuts the door of the dressing room and starts putting her clothes back on and cleaning up the bathing suits.

Lorelai doesn't feel that Rory should stay home alone all summer, and she feels bad taking her to the Inn everyday so Rory has been enrolled in classes every summer for as long as she can remember. They have gone through every kind of dance: ballet, tap, jazz, hip-hop, and piano lessons, tennis, painting, and this summer, is swimming and diving.

When school is in session, everything is simple. Lorelai works when Rory is in school and hangs out with Rory when she's not. That's the way she likes it.

Rory exits the dressing room and hands her mom the pink tankini she has decided to purchase.

Lorelai pays for the suit and they head over to Luke's diner.

"What'll you have? Make it quick. I'm in no mood for funny business," Luke greets the Gilmores.

"My day has been ok, thanks for asking," Lorelai responds with a smirk.

"You have… three seconds to order, or you're not getting anything."

"Iced Coffee please."

"Fine, Rory?"

She looks up at her mom. "Ewww, coffee. I'll have an Iced Latte."

"That's just coffee and milk," Luke explains.

"I know, I just can't stand the stuff black."

"You'll learn babe." Lorelai tells her daughter.

"You shouldn't be encouraging this, she should be drinking chocolate milk… or water," Luke explains.

"That's a good idea Luke. Add some chocolate in there too," Rory smiles.

"An Iced Mocha it is," Luke grumbles.

"Yeah good idea, and thanks for the input Luke. You know, you can raise a 99% water child, but she can have what she wants. Coffee makes us happy."

Luke comes back with their drinks.

"So, Luke, what's wrong?"

"Well, Liz has decided to go on some backpacking tour all summer, and she is leaving little Jess with me. I have no idea how to keep him occupied all summer. I mean he can probably help me out here, but there are only so many dishes to wash and I don't know how much fun that's going to be. He should be running around or something, but I don't know what to do with him. Ugh."

"Listen, Rory is enrolled in swim lessons three times a week, you should sign Jess up. That'll get him out of your hair, and I bet he'll enjoy it. It's at the pool at Stars Hollow High."

"Thanks that's a great idea. I'll ask him."

On their way home, Rory starts to freak out.

"Mom!"

"Sweets?"

"There are boys in my class?"

"Yeah… what's the big deal?"

"I'll be in a bathing suit!"

"…so will everybody else."

"In front of boys!"

"Okay…"

"I can't swim!"

"Rory, calm down, you're in swimming lessons, I'm sure you're not the only one. You'll learn. That's why you're going."

Rory just sighs.

"Hun, everything will be okay, I promise. Maybe you'll even make friends with Jess."

"Yeah… that'll happen." Rory rolls her eyes.

* * *

The first day of swim class is spent learning about the pool and about swimming techniques.

Jess and his friends spend the day complaining about the "baby stuff" they're doing in class. But by the end of the week they will be diving. This is too soon for Rory who appreciates the baby steps.

She pays very close attention to any tips they give her about swimming and watches the other members of her class very closely. She does her best to fit in and pretend that she knew how to swim all along.

* * *

Rory arrives for her next class, and a small Asian girl approaches Rory, she reminds her of her best friend Lane.

"You're Rory, right?"

"Yes. Julia?"

"Yup," the girls smile and begin walking towards the pool.

Today they work on diving off the edge of the pool. Rory practices diving and is proud of herself for keeping up with the rest of the class.

* * *

The girls wade in the shallow end of the pool waiting for class to start.

Jess and his friends Garrett and Cody begin playing some obnoxiously immature game in which they see who can shout out obscene words the loudest.

Every once in a while, the girls would hear "boob!" or "butt!" coming from the deep end of the pool. They don't even want to know.

When class gets started, their teacher starts talking about diving off of the low diving board. They see techniques and demonstrations. It is time for them to try, one by one, off the board, with everybody watching them.

Jess and his friends dive off the board and Julia takes her turn as well as most of the other students in the class. It is Rory's turn, and she becomes very nervous. She climbs out of the pool and steps onto the powder blue diving board. She stops. She sees the whole classes staring at her. Her teacher is in the water trying to convince her that everything is fine and that she just needs to jump and everything will be okay.

Jess and his friends are still horsing around, and every so often they'd look up to see others diving. "Come on already, scaredy cat!" One of them yells at Rory. "Hurry up and jump, retard!" "Stop being a baby!"

Rory tries her best to ignore them, but with their attitude, Rory does not want to let them see her fail, especially at this. She takes a few more steps and reaches the end of the board. She jumps off, and swims back to her spot in the pool. Her dive was nothing impressive, and she got water up her nose, but at least she did it. She showed them. Rory glances up at the board she just dove off of, and thinks of how scared she felt and then takes a look at the royal blue high dive. Impossible.

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On Monday, the class splashes around in the pool. The teacher quiets them down and explains that today would be volunteers only going on the high dive. Rory lets out a sigh of relief. She would not have to go today. What are the chances she could fake sick on Wednesday? Would it be over and would everybody forget about it? Yeah, she wishes.

She is in absolute awe over how many people volunteer to go toe-to-toe with death in jumping off of this ungodly high platform. She makes note of the ease in which people perform the entire task: volunteering, climbing, walking, and jumping. Somebody is going to have to carry her up there because she will not be raising her hand.

Rory keeps her eye on the students who have not yet gone. One by one, the list dwindles.

Garrett raises his hand. "Can I go again?"

The instructor replies, "only after everybody has gotten the chance to go once. Has everybody gone?"

The swim coach looks at Rory. "Would you like to go today?"

Rory gives her a pleading look while her heart begins beating faster and faster.

She does manage a polite, "No, thank you. If that's okay."

"That's fine, Rory," she smiles at the small pruned girl.

Jess notices the sheer look of panic on Rory's face and wonders how this simple task could cause someone so much grief.

"Figures the baby wouldn't go," Garrett says and rolls his eyes, "so can I go now?!" He asks impatiently. Jess's fist makes contact with his friends arm and he says quietly, "shut up, don't be such a butt." Garrett just shrugs.

The teacher hears what he says about Rory and says, "No. That's enough for today. I would like to see Garrett and Rory after class. Everybody else may go. See you in a couple of days."

She pulls Garrett aside and Rory overhears something about thinking before speaking and acting his age.

Next is her talk with Rory. "Hey, you know, I'm never going to _make_ you go on the high dive. You don't have to worry. I'm not gonna make a big thing about it either. I'm sorry he was being mean today, let me know if it happens again, and you don't have to do anything you're not comfortable doing. You did the other diving board, which was great, and you've made a lot of progress. I want this class to be fun. Alright?"

Rory gives her a genuine smile and after thanking her, heads home. Sweat begins to form on her hairline because of the blistering sun.

* * *

_Ding Dong._ The doorbell at the Gilmore house rings on Tuesday morning.

"Who's that, Mom?"

"We'll see."

They answer the door.

"Hey Jess," Lorelai greets the boy.

Rory looks at him and walks away.

"Hi Rory," he says after her.

She turns around. "What do you want?"

"I wanted to talk to you. We can get some lunch and stuff. Please come with me."

Lorelai looks at Rory giving her the okay, and she exits silently with him.

"Why did you come to my house?"

"I… just… wanted to."

"Okay, now what?" Rory inquires.

"If you're hungry, we can stop by Luke's, but I do have a reason for coming to get you. You're gonna have to trust me. I have something to show you."

"Okay. I guess you can show me now. I don't have a lot of time."

"I understand. Follow me," Jess requests.

Jess somehow seems different today, and Rory follows him. They climb up a hill and end up on a cliff of sorts, overlooking the river. Jess sits down in the dirt, and Rory does the same. Their faces are flushed from the walk and the beaming sun overhead.

"I'm hot," Jess tells Rory.

"Me too," Rory agrees.

"I'm dirty."

"So am I! What do you want me to do about it?"

"Geez, I'm just saying…"

Rory sighs, "I'm sorry, I just don't know why you brought me here."

"I just… wanted to apologize for being kind of a jerk to you in swim class. I wanted to make it up to you."

"By sitting me in the dirt?"

"I guess. I just wanted some privacy," Jess fades off and looks into space.

Rory starts to relax and enjoy the moment. "It's pretty up here. The water looks nice." They glance down into the river beneath them.

"I bet it could cool us off."

"Yeah, it would be good to just jump in right now."

"I'm up for it if you are."

"I'm so hot… but I'm in my clothes. I would… but I don't know if it's safe."

"It is. I do it all the time. There's no rocks or anything, and it's deep enough, but not too deep. You'll be safe, and you'll have fun. I promise."

"You're sure?"

"Yeah. Come on."

Jess takes Rory's hand and he looks at her reassuringly and they run and prepare to jump in the lake.

Rory closes her eyes and jumps, and then giggles and smiles once she lands in the lake.

Jess and Rory splash around for a bit and actually have fun with each other.

They sit on a park bench in the town square, eating their ice cream, Jess's treat, and drying off.

Garrett and Cody see the pair on the bench and walk over and glare at Rory.

"Jess, why are you hanging out with the baby?" Garrett asks.

"Yeah, she's not worth your time. Ditch the _girl_ and come hang out with us. We just devised a new plan to get into the movies for free. We need three people, let's go." Cody explains.

"Listen, I don't have time to see a movie right now. I'll talk to you guys later, okay?" Jess says.

"It's not okay, but whatever. Have fun hanging out with the scaredy-cat."

"Yeah, maybe you can go wash some more dishes with your uncle!"

"Maybe I will. It is my job…" Jess blows off his friends and they walk away.

When they leave, Rory starts to talk.

"Why did you do it?"

"What?"

"You came and got me, and were nice to me, and dove with me, and bought me ice cream. It was a lot to do for someone you haven't really ever talked to."

"I'm not really sure why. I just felt like it. And I wanted to apologize for my friends being mean to you. I don't really like when they do that to people. They always choose someone to pick on, and when they chose you, I felt worse because I know you."

"Well, thanks. It's good to know you don't hate me too."

"They don't hate you. It's just their way of having fun."

"There are other ways to have fun."

"I know."

"Well, thanks again. I'll talk to you later."

"Yeah…"

"Listen, if you don't talk to me anymore, I'll live. Goodbye"

"Rory, it's just a little complicated with my friends and everything…"

"I'll live. You're better than them. I'm here if you need a friend."

"Goodbye Rory."

* * *

At the next class, the teacher asks for volunteers for the high dive, and Rory confidently raises her hand and grins as wide as she can.

She, just as confidently, swims out of the pool, climbs up the ladder, walks on the royal blue diving board and dives off of it.

She becomes submerged in the water, and she has never been happier and freer.

Jess smiles to himself. He is happy for Rory. He cocks his eyebrows at his friends. They can't mock her for being scared anymore.

They give him a look back. "Doesn't she wear that bathing suit every day? What a loser."

Jess realizes he will never be able to win with his friends. They are mean. He does not want to be associated with them any longer.

Jess swims over to Rory and opens his arms. She swims into Jess for a hug.

"Whatever! Nobody wants to be friends with a dishwasher anyway!" They call after him.

He is almost surprised at himself for not caring, at all.

Rory smiles at Jess, "I do."

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**A/N: I quite honestly would like to thank you for just reading my story. If you review, sign in, I like to read the stories of my reviewers. Thanks : )**

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